Economy | Page 16 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 19, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Okino Hotel

“The [Okino] hotel [on Kamehameha Avenue] was built in 1913. But before then, [Yoshimatsu Okino] had another one on Front Street [Kamehameha], but I don’t know what year that was built. And then they built this big one in 1913.” (Violet Hirata)

Hotel advertising referred to it as “The Oldest Hotel in Hilo”. (Hilo Tribune Heald, July 31, 1947) A newspaper story referred to it as “the oldest Japanese hotel in Hilo”. (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 24, 1959)

Yoshimatsu Okino was born on December 4, 1860, in Hiroshima-ken, Japan. He had at least 2 sons and 1 daughter with Waka Hamai. (Family Search)) Yoshimatsu Okino died in 1917; after that, his son, Yoshio (‘Fats’) Okino took over the operation.

“We had all different customers. We used to have – month to month, we had salesmen that came from Honolulu, and different tenants. We had some boarders that worked in Hilo. So they boarded there and they went to work. So we had quite a few of them boarding, regular boarders.”

[Masako Kayano Okino], born in Pahala, married Yoshio Okino, son of the Okino hotel founder. Masako “was busy with the cooking and all that with the ladies.”

“And [we] had my aunt living with us when we were young to help my mom. So, besides the ladies that work with her, we had one aunt, older aunt that stayed, and then the younger one came in and stay, take over after that. We were lucky.”

“And they had [base]ball teams coming. Or, Fourth of July, they have [sumo] wrestlers coming in. The group comes and goes. We were very busy.”

“Grandfather built it. Grandfather died when [Yoshio] was nineteen, so [Yoshio] had to take over that. Grandma [Waka Okino] died later, but he was nineteen only when Grandfather died.” (Violet Hirata, daughter of Yoshio Okino)

Yoshio Okino and Masako Kayano Okino owned and operated Okino Hotel on 482 Kamehameha Avenue. There were family quarters in one section of the hotel. The children helped their parents in the hotel dining room, serving food to customers and clearing tables.

Okino Hotel was destroyed in the 1946 tsunami. Hirata and the family managed to escape the waves by fleeing in back of the building – away from the ocean – toward the Hilo Gas Company gas tanks. Her brother, George, became trapped in the debris and was later rescued. A guest of the hotel died that day.

Yoshio later established another hotel on Kino‘ole Street, which they operated until 1959. Hirata eventually worked as a hairdresser, and later, for Western Auto. She retired in 1989. She and her husband, Takeshi Hiiata, whom she married in 1949, raised three children and currently have five grandchildren. (NOAA Fisheries)

“The Okino Hotel, which was completely demolished in the tidal wave of April 1, 1946, will reopen its modern, two story building Friday in a new location at 481 Kinoole street.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 31, 1947)

(“Ironically, the single remaining ‘monument’ from the 1946 tsunami, the furo bathroom of the old Okino hotel, stood firm through the … wave assault”. (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 18, 1960))

“Construction of the proposed Okino Hotel has been postponed indefinitely, Yoshio Okino reported today. Instead, Okino has taken a lease on the two story building at 481 Kinoole Street … he said he cannot afford to wait any longer to get back into business”. (Hilo Tribune Herald, June 16, 1947)

“The new structure is situated across from the Hilo fire department and will be under management of Yoshio Okino …. The hotel has been located in Hilo for over 50 years and prior to the tidal wave was on Kamehameha avenue.”

“Well-ventilated, the hotel will have 24 rooms for transient guests, and will have hot and cold showers. A restaurant will be located on the ground floor.”

“In his youth, [Yoshio] Okino was one of the most noted baseball players in the territory, known as the ‘Babe Ruth of the Pacific.’ [He was referred to as the ‘home run king’ with a batting average of .556]”. (HTH)

“He was centerfielder of the Japanese Athletic club nine that toured Japan in the early ‘20s. Later he became a catcher. His sons are prospective Hilo senior leaguers.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, July 31, 1947)

Yoshio “started in Honolulu with the Japanese High school team there and played for the JAC combine in Hilo during his summer vacations. That was his start.”

“In 1916, he played football and baseball for the Mid-Pacific Institute, also known as Mills school. The following year he came to Hilo and started playing for the JAC in dead earnest.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, April 6, 1928)

Back to the hotel … a July 24, 1959 notice in the paper noted, “Okino Hotel will be closed from July 31, 1959. [Yoshio Okino stated,] I wish, at this time, to extend sincere thanks and appreciation to my many patrons and friends for their kind patronage in the past years. Retiring after 40 years in the Hotel Business.” (Hilo Tribune Herald) He then moved to Honolulu.

Shortly thereafter, a “Notice” in the paper, “Announcing the Change of Name and Ownership of Okino Hotel, Effective August 1^st, 1959” to Lincoln Hotel. “Richard M Inouye, Owner of the Lincoln Grill)”.

Later, “The New Rainbow Hotel … Formerly Known as Okino Hotel” was “Completely Remodeled” “all with Private Bathrooms” and “Open for Business”. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Dec 29, 1965). The former Okino Hotel still stands across from the Fire Station on Kino‘ole street.

May 18, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Howard Midkiff Sr

John Howard Midkiff, son of James Jesse and Bertha (Wilson) Midkiff, was born January 16, 1893, in Stonington, Christian County, Illinois. His mother died when he was only 3-½ years old. His father was a Baptist preacher, who never made more than $62 a month and raised the 5 boys and 2 girls himself and sent every one through college.

In the summers between 7^th grade and high school, John worked on a farm in the corn belt on the mainland. They got up at 3:30 am to milk cows, feed pigs and harness horses; then worked in the fields from daylight to sunset; came back and fed the livestock again. (UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“I came out here [to Hawai‘i] during the Food Administration. I was at the First Officer’s Training School in the first World War. And I was taken out of there and sent over here. They had the Food Administration, really, it’s mostly food production. In case we should be shut off from the Mainland. On the island of Hawaii [in West Hawaii].” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

Then, “John H Midkiff, former county food agent in West Hawaii, is now assistant professor of agriculture at the College of Hawaii [forerunner to University of Hawai‘i], devoting part of his time to instruction and lectures and hog raising, at a part of his time, also, to experimental and investigation work.” (HTH, May 21, 1919)

After that, “John H Midkiff now with Koloa Plantation, Kauai, was selected late yesterday afternoon by the trustees of Kamehameha Schools as principal of the Kamehameha School for Boys.”

“Midkiff is well known in the islands and his combination of thorough vocational training with experience in Hawaiian industries was a strong factor … in his selection for Kamehameha.” (SB, Aug 7, 1923)

John’s brother, Frank Elbert Midkiff, was president of Kamehameha Schools [1923 – 1934] and a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate [1939-1983]. (KSBE) “I was principal of the (Kamehameha) school [1923-1924] and I decided the school life simply wasn’t for me.”

“I just naturally preferred the agricultural work. Before that time, I had taught botany, genetics, agriculture at the University and I had been principal of the Kamehameha Boys’ School for one year. But my heart was always on the plantations.” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“And then, Mr. Frank Atherton who was a head of Castle and Cook at that time knew that I had been offered a job as Division Supervisor at Pioneer on Maui.”

“And he said, ‘Well, why don’t you go out and try our plantations on this island?’ I went to Ewa first and told them very frankly that I was shooting for the assistant manager’s job. If there was a chance to work up to that, fine. Otherwise I didn’t want to go there. And he simply laughed at me. He said, ‘You better go someplace else.’”

“So, then, I went over to Waialua. Buck Thompson was the manager. I frankly told him the same thing. He said well, if I proved that I could handle it, someday I might get it. It took me eight years to get it”. (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“[A]ny plantation work I’ve ever seen in Hawaii is a picnic and always was, compared to the farm days back in Illinois. We had short seasons and we had to work every daylight hour.”

“We got up long before daylight, did all our chores around the farm, had breakfast, and then went to the fields. Took our lunch with us and stayed there till dark”. (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“[I]n the plantations of course, we had a number of different communities. They pretty well segregated according to their racial background. Japanese lived in certain village, Chinese in others, and the Portuguese’d live mostly in one place although they were scattered all over, too.”

“We had what was known as the haole camp. That was the supervisors mostly, too. They were a little better class of houses. Well, considerably better class of houses than the ordinary workmen had.”

“At the time I first went to Waialua, very few of the workers’ houses had any running water or toilets in them. … before I left, I saw that every one of them did have.” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“One of the first regulations I sent out to the supervisors when I was appointed manager was that there was to be absolutely no abuse of any kind of any laborer. No verbal or other abuse. They certainly should never touch em.”

“And first, a good many of them’d said, ‘Well, how are you gonna run a gang, if you can’t cuss em out?’ I said, ‘Well, lead them.’ We had really good labor relations. We paid 10 cents an hour more than any plantation in Hawaii. And had the lowest labor cost in Hawaii. Cause we could get good men who were willing to work.”

“During the War, to encourage turnout, because the government wanted all the sugar it could get and we lost many of our men to the services, I gave a $25 bond every month to a person who had a perfect turnout or within one day of it. Well, no other plantation did that.”

“But then when they finally got union contract, that was frozen into my contract. Not the bond, but the 10 cents an hour extra. Which suited me fine because I could always get almost anybody I wanted.”

“We were not unionized until after every other plantation had been. Maybe I was wrong, but I thought I could have kept them out as long as I was manager if I wanted to.”

“But then I knew everybody’d be concentrating on us all the time, the whole ILWU would be. So finally I decided, oh heck, better let them get in so I can see what they’re doing and work things out.” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“Under his management, Waialua was among the first plantations to introduce training programs, improved community facilities and a funded pension plan. He emphasized the importance of the work done by his employees and the contributions they made to the company’s success.”

“His work in the fields brought him close to the men in the sugar industry and helped him understand their problems. When the opportunity came, he used his position to help to make life better for his employees.”

“Few men hold as distinguished a place in Hawaii’s industrial and community life because few men possess John Midkiff’s understanding that good human relations are essential to any success.” (SB, Jan 5, 1951)

“My brother Frank and I started the Waialua Community Association. It was his idea. I got the plantation to donate land, the building and that was the start of that movement all over Hawaii. There are many of them now where you could get together. Everyone in the whole community, plantation or non-plantation, was invited and included in.”

“In fact, I always refused to take any office in it, or to be on any board of directors in it because I thought it or to be too overpowering for the plantation manager. If he said something when you’re furnishing the payroll for a big part of the community, people might be inclined to give it too much weight. So I never was.” (Midkiff, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“The broad aim of this Waialua association is the desire to improve the social and economic life of the people of Waialua and the feeling that with cooperative effort … rural life can be made as attractive as urban life. … The district is agricultural, characteristic of the territory at large; it has adequate soils and water; and it has an industrious and ambitious population.”

“Through the cooperation of all Waialua people, the Waialua district may become a model for Hawaii and an example for other sections of the United States as well – in showing what a rural community can do in the way of social and economic betterment when it sets about to do it.” (SB, Feb 15, 1935)

“John was very concerned to keep competent employees on the plantation. So [he and his brother] organized the first rural community association in Hawai’i at Waialua and then the second one along the Windward O‘ahu Coast, (Ko‘olau Poko, Ko‘olau Loa).” (Robert Midkiff Oral History)

John H Midkiff Sr began working for the Waialua Agricultural Co. in 1924 as a supervisor. He was manager from 1932 to 1951 and retired because of bad health. He died on May 28, 1984 (at the age of 91).

May 14, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arthur Akinaka

Arthur Akinaka was born in 1909 in Kapalama, Oahu. His mother, Haru Yokomizo, and father, Rinichi Akinaka “were next-door neighbors in a sparsely settled farming area. Before they could leave Japan to better their economic circumstances, their parents felt (it) best that they should get married.”

“My parents came here newly married in 1906 from the back farming area of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. They boarded (the steamer,) America-Maru, from Kobe”.

“Upon arrival they were met by my (uncle’s business) partner at the wharf. They were encouraged by my uncle, who was operating a soda (water bottling) works with his partner, not to struggle at some sugar plantation, but to try to get started in Palama.”

“So, knowing only one occupation, my mother, then age sixteen, my father, age nineteen, started a small tofu factory (in the hopes of making) a living. Of course, the work was very hard.”

“My sixteen-year-old mother had to get up two o’clock in the morning. And then, after the tofu, aburage [deep fried tofu], and konnyaku [a type of jelly made from the konjac] were made, (my father) would carry (them in) cans around Palama.”

“It was (only) a few months (later) that Judge (William) Rawlins, who owned that building at the intersection of Beretania and King Streets, saw my father (passing by daily) and asked (him) whether he would want to – together with my mother – move over to the premises of Mr. Harry Roberts, who was looking for a replacement (for) his (yard keeper), who was retiring to Japan.”

“And so, that’s how my parents moved (here) to (the corner of Houghtailing and School Streets,) where I was born.” (Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

Arthur grew up on Mr. Roberts’ two-acre estate, “It was a two-acre site, (where) Mr. Roberts, (after) his retirement from the Honolulu Advertiser (as) a commercial artist due to failing eyesight, (had) very thoroughly interested himself in horticulture. My earliest recollections (are of) this two-acre site.”

“This area has always been known as the makai portion of Kapalama. Kapalama extended from the mountain to the sea. The Kamehameha Schools (are located in the mauka portion of Kapalama).” (Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“As I remember it, both School Street and Houghtailing Road were dirt roads. School Street extended (Ewa only) as far as Kalihi Street, and Kalihi Street went up into Kalihi Valley. In the Waikiki direction – this was before McInerny Tract was subdivided – there (were) a (few) scattered houses.”

“I’m thankful to have been born in this point in time (and not during previous times). When (I was) a youngster, my mother had to prepare food on wood stoves and (I) had to chop (kiawe) firewood (and thence there was) the gradual changeover to kerosene stove and kerosene lamps.”

“When I was born and for many years, we had no electricity, no drinking water. But with McInerny Tract (being opened up), water (mains) came in, sewers came in, electric system came in.”

“It (was) quite interesting to meet up with schoolchildren from near the school site, mostly from mauka of School (Street), as well as down on Vineyard, Kukui Street, all the way toward King Street. They were far more urbanized than I was.”

“In fact, I was looked on as more of a country boy and was finding it difficult to make too many new friends. Of course, there were always boys that are friendly to you, but by and large, I minded myself and studied, which was what my parents and also Mr. Roberts emphasized.”

“[I]n 1917, Queen Lili’uokalani passed away. Of course, that would have made me eight years old. I walked all the way to Nuuanu Street to witness the funeral procession that laid the Queen to rest up Nuuanu Mausoleum.”

Akinaka attended Japanese “language school [that] was on Nuuanu Street, halfway between School and Vineyard [Streets] on premises which now have been taken over by Foster Gardens. It was known as Japanese Central Institute and was started by those (first-generation Japanese) who were Christians.”

“However, when Palama Gakuen was built, in my sixth year of language school, I moved to that school (since it was nearer to home). From there, I continued at Hongwanji [Japanese-language (high) school] on Fort Street. So, I have had ten years of Japanese schooling to a degree where I began to (understand) Japanese culture.”

“[M]y mother had jogakko or middle school education. My father, being the only child and having to leave school after only four years of grammar school education (to tend the family farm,) felt very strongly about all his children at least getting as good education as he could afford. So, there was no question that we (should) continue (on to) college (if we could).”

“When I entered University [ of Hawai‘i], I thought I should try to take up premedicine. But I came to the (early) conclusion that our family finances would not permit (my) being financed through a Mainland medical school, (and) so I shifted to something (in) which I could graduate in (four years) and make a living.”

“So, from one year of pre-medical courses such as chemistry, zoology and botany, I shifted over to whatever engineering subjects they would allow me to take. It was a constant [effort] trying to catch up.”

“I’m very grateful with the teachers (and principals) that I had all through grammar school, high school and university, and how they helped me appreciate the value of a good education and being a good citizen.”

“I graduated in 1930 after the disastrous 1929 stock crash and work was hard to come by. I had always wanted to go into building construction because in that field there were, perhaps, better opportunities. Engineering (was) not (then) open to too many Orientals.”

“But then, the (contracting) firm I (started with) had a very minimum salary [and] was not able to even pay that salary. So it was fortunate that I had, at the University, taken up advanced (ROTC) [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] training (and) upon graduation had (received) a (reserve) commission in the Army.”

“The Corps of Engineers here needed (an additional) young man (for) their staff. The major in charge of the local office took a liking (to me) and hired me. So, I worked for five years (with the) Corps of Engineers on harbor work. But then, come the year ’35, (and) with increasing war consciousness, it was (thought) better that I stay back instead of being assigned to the (more sensitive) Pacific islands. (I was transferred) laterally to Hickam Field (where a military airfield was to be built).”

“But after eight years (with the) Federal civil service I shifted over (in 1938) to the first Territorial Planning Board. … There was (then) a national trend (in long-range planning) among the forty-eight states; all of them had state planning boards.”

“At that time (for the territory,) it was desirable to make an inventory of the resources – (geographic), social, economic, and industrial. So, using (Mainland state reports) as a pattern, the Territory of Hawaii made its own report. One of the important things about statewide planning is (that) unless it is implemented subsequently with (projects and funding) it (soon is) forgotten and filed away on shelves.”

“The Territorial Planning Board was a creature of the Legislature. The Legislature, realizing that war (was) imminent, decided there was not the need to put (further) human resources to further planning. So, that office was closed in June 1941.”

“And rather than try to, in a frustrating manner, make a go in the government service with a career, I was advised, being still young, to try my luck out on my own. That’s how I started out.”

“I, having a reserve commission, approaching earning a captaincy, volunteered to (join) the military right (after) the Pearl Harbor (attack). But since my father and my younger brother (were) in Japan, (I was) not (a) welcome volunteer.”

Following the attack on Pearly Harbor, “the first year, we, together with couple other construction firms, produced these sixteen-men pre-fabricated (military) housing units. (Our company) must have produced a thousand of (them), which were fabricated in that block, (then a large empty lot), just makai of Blaisdell Center.”

“Army units would come, with their trucks, and haul (them away) and assemble (them) wherever they were assigned. And then, with that first year program over, came construction of warehouses, office additions, (a) cold storage building, hospital additions, all of which kept me busy. As I take inter-island plane trips and fly over [the island], I notice next to the airport, still standing and in use, many of the warehouses that (we) had built.”

Following the wars, “I ran for the Senate [in 1948]. There were six of us, and I didn’t qualify with the first three, but I didn’t come

in last. It [the campaign] was a last-minute assignment. It was not something which I had preplanned and programmed.”

“But as a result of that, I guess I won the respect of Mayor [John H.] Wilson. He invited me to succeed a department head who had reached compulsory retirement age. [But] at that time [because the position was] only a two-year appointment, requiring me to give up my business because it was too related, I had to thank the mayor and refuse it.”

“My business was something I had built up over a period of close to ten years. But when I went to see the mayor after, he told me to think it over. He (said), ‘Arthur, you are privileged to be an American citizen, and with it, you have had the benefit of public education and protection in police, health, and so on’”

“He would think, (that) when (one were) asked – and not many people get asked – there should be but one answer. And my answer to him was, irrespective of the way I felt, ‘Yes, sir.’” (From 1951 to 1955, Akinaka served two terms as a building department head.) Following that, he remained in private practice for the rest of his career.

In his long engineering career, Arthur was recognized for not only his professional endeavors, but his contributions to the community. He dedicated his time and energy to various organizations including the UH Alumni Association, Kamehameha Lions Club, Kalihi-Palama Community Council, Kalihi YMCA, Advisory Group for the Prison Correctional Industries, and Board of Trustees for Kuakini Medical Center, to name a few. (Akinaka & Associates)

In 1966, the firm was incorporated and since 1984 led by his son, Robert Y. Akinaka. Today, the company is a locally owned firm headed by Ken C. Kawahara. (Akinaka & Associates)

May 13, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Food Administration

“When war began in summer 1914, the United States declared its neutrality, seeing the conflict as European. That position held, despite the mid-1915 death of 128 Americans in the Lusitania sinking. The campaign slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War” helped re-elect Pres. Woodrow Wilson in 1916.”

“Neutrality was soon impossible: in early 1917 Germany began unrestrained submarine attacks on Atlantic shipping … the United States entered The Great War on April 6, 1917”. (Manning, WWI Centennial Commission)

The US Food Administration was created by Executive Order No. 2679-A (August 10, 1917), under authority of the Food and Fuel Control (Lever) Act of the same date, with Herbert Hoover as Food Administrator. Hoover had already established a headquarters for the agency on May 4, 1917, following his return from a fact-finding tour of Europe. (National Archives)

The Food Administration was given broad powers to control the production, distribution, and conservation of food. It also had responsibilities for preventing monopolies and hoarding and maintaining governmental control of foods by means of voluntary agreements and a licensing system for the importation, manufacture, storage, and distribution of foodstuffs. (National Archives)

The Food Administration had very little enforcement powers and relied primarily on encouraging voluntary cooperation in conservation and sales with posters for outdoor and indoor display with slogans such as “Food Will Win The War” and pledge campaigns to “enroll all men, women, and children …in a food conservation army.” (National Archives)

These programs relied heavily on using the “weapon of publicity” to appeal to the “patriotism and loyalty of citizens.” Prices were controlled mainly through local price interpreting (“fair price”) committees which prepared and published fair price lists and “retail price reporters” who investigated violations. (National Archives)

Local food administrators tried to “hold in check the forces of speculation and avariciousness” and prevent “extortionate profits” by merchants by publicizing the names of business that did not follow the price guidelines. (National Archives)

In the Islands, in a cable sent in April, 1917, Secretary of Agriculture Lane asked Governor Lucius E Pinkham that Hawaii make itself as self-supporting as possible and increase its exports of foods, especially sugar to the mainland.

Legislation was rushed through the closing days of the Legislature and Act 221, which created the Territorial Food Commission and allotted it $25,000, was approved by Governor Pinkham on May 2, 1917. (Hawai‘i State Archives)

One of the first tasks undertaken by the Hawai‘i Commission was an inventory of the different food supplies on hand in the Islands and a comparison of it with the Custom House imports of the same goods, to see which island products could be increased and imports of it decreased.

It also undertook the investigation of such things as hoarding, wasting of food and excessively high costs and prices. In this endeavor, it used its powers to fix a ceiling on the price of Hawaiian grown rice and taro. (Hawai‘i State Archives)

The Food Control Act of August 10, 1917 and subsequent Presidential proclamations did give the Food Administration the authority to license the manufacture, storage, and distribution of “certain necessaries” including …”

“… the milling of corn, oats, barley and rice; the manufacture of “near-beer” and similar cereal beverages; operation of warehouses to store food or food commodities; baking; cotton ginning; salt water fishing and the distribution of seafood; importation of flour; and use of commercial feeds for livestock, cattle, and hogs.” (National Archives)

“An ongoing 1917-18 effort was food conservation. Herbert Hoover, Pres. Wilson’s ‘Food Administrator,’ exhorted Americans to stretch and increase available food. Food saved by civilians could feed frontline troops. Patriots would plant Victory Gardens, avoid waste, and not horde.” (Manning, WWI Centennial Commission)

“Hawaii must feed more troops, stationed here or passing through. Shipping food to Hawaii took valuable cargo space. Better to use less, eat local foods, and dry or can fresh produce.”

“Key military ration ingredients were targeted for conservation. ‘The woman handling the home food supply is equal to the man who handles a battlefield gun,’ wrote an advocate. Housewives were encouraged to observe Meatless Monday and Wheatless Wednesday.”

“While an egg saved in Hawaii might not reach the troops, flour not needed here could. Ways to stretch flour, and avoid waste were pushed. A patriotic Love’s Bakery experimented with a recipe for a ‘Victory Loaf’ – sandwich bread made from bananas.”

“Patriotic letters to the editor pushed ‘Bread Economy’: a slice a day per person saved in Hawaii translated into food for thousands. Love’s Bakery ads suggested ideas for cooking with stale bread – ‘Don’t Waste.’”

“To ‘Do Your Bit,’ Love’s said, buy their ‘Truly Patriotic Loaf’ – Graham Bread made with ingredients not used in white breads. If all Honolulu ate Love’s Graham 2 days a week, 10,000 lbs. of wheat would be saved ads bragged.” (Manning, WWI Centennial Commission)

Most of the enforcement powers of the Food Administration were ended by a Presidential proclamation of January 1, 1919. (National Archives)

The US Food Administration officially existed for less than 24-months and yet its legacy included momentous impacts to the political, social, and economic landscape of the nation, along with a profound influence on peace negotiations and international affairs. (Buschman)

Perhaps the Territorial Food Commission’s most important project was the initiation of the county agent system for the purpose of advising and instructing planters of crops other than sugar cane and pineapple, about matters pertaining to planting, cultivating, spraying, harvesting and marketing.

These agents, one each on Oahu, Maui and Kauai, and two on Hawaii, also served as marketing demonstrators for the Marketing Division of the Board of Agriculture and Forestry.

They supplied them with information about crops that were planted or about to be marketed and other data of interest …. County agents also acted as representatives of the Federal Food Administration in 1918. (Hawai‘i State Archives)

The Cooperative Extension Service (CES) and the University of Hawai‘i developed its own version of an extension program, which was the basis of a successful appeal to Congress after several years of struggle for Hawai‘i’s inclusion in the Act.

The CTAHR Cooperative Extension Service is a part of the world’s largest non-traditional education system, the Cooperative Extension System. CES is the third major component of land grant universities, along with instruction and research.

It is a partnership between federal, state, and local governments and has responsibility for providing science-based information and educational programs in agriculture, natural resources, and human resources. (CTAHR)

May 9, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Rock Silo to Bell Tower

Carl W Winstedt and the National Construction Company began construction on the Aloha Tower on 1924. The project took a year and a half to complete.

Aloha Tower opened in 1926; at 184-feet, 2-inches tall, it was the tallest building in the Territory (and remained such for the next forty years.) (LRB)

Winstedt was originally from Sweden. Life wasn’t always so tall for Winstedt; back in 1915, he and his wife Marie Camr Winstedt went through bankruptcy in Juneau, Alaska.

But things were looking up.

Following Aloha Tower, Winstedt built the Egholm Residence in the Diamond Head Terraces subdivision in 1926. It is one of the few examples of small cottages in the Spanish Colonial Revival style popular in Hawai‘i in the 1920s and early-1930s.

Both of those structures (Aloha Tower and Egholm residence) are still here. In fact, there is another structure attributed to Winstedt that is still around, although it is very unlike the prior two examples of his work.

Reportedly in 1926, Winstedt’s National Construction Company, Ltd was the lowest bidder for the construction of a portion of the Kamehameha highway, designated “Job 4057.”

Winstedt and National were awarded the contract for this work by the Territory of Hawaiʻi acting through Lyman H Bigelow, the territorial highway commissioner. (Court Records, March 8, 1933)

Winstedt was to build Kamehameha Highway from Waimea Bay to Kahuku. Reportedly, to support it, in 1930, he built a rock quarry on the North edge of Waimea Bay to produce gravel. (pupukea-waimea)

However, it appears Winstedt and his companies, National Construction Co and Realty Development Co, faced hard times related to the road project.

“(T)he aggregate of the claims filed against the construction company … is in excess of $100,000. It is also conceded that the construction company and the sureties on its bond are insolvent.” (Court Records, March 8, 1933)

The facility was abandoned in 1932; it’s not clear what happened with it for the next 20-years.

Then, St Michael’s Church was looking for a church facility. With changing demographics and land needs, they had given up their 1853 stone church in Waialua and were in a 1923 concrete building; they looked at Waimea, at the far end of the parish.

In April of 1953, the Catholic mission acquired the old rock crusher site and converted the buildings into Saint Michael Parish, Waialua with Mission of Saints Peter & Paul.

The concrete rock silo was converted into a 100-foot bell tower. The former construction company machine sheds were converted into a patio and chapel. (Clark & pupukea-waimea)

About that time, other changes were happening at Waimea Bay; sand was being removed to replenish the eroded Waikīkī Beach, across the island.

Reportedly, before sand mining operations removed over 200,000-tons of sand from Waimea Bay to fill beaches in Waikīkī and elsewhere, there was so much sand that if you would have tried to jump off Pōhaku Lele (Jump Rock,) you would have jumped about six feet down into the sand below.

Like Aloha Tower, the former silo for crushed rubble has become one of the most famous landmarks on Oʻahu.